


(Chain) Mail Call

by cricketnationrise



Series: Nurseyweek2021 [5]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Chain Mail, Frog Chat, Gen, Hockey nicknames, Martha Wells, Murderbot - Freeform, NHL!Nursey, Nurseyweek2021, blink and you miss it Nursey/Dex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29377482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricketnationrise/pseuds/cricketnationrise
Summary: “Uhhh, Nurse? What’s that you’ve got there?”“It’s chain mail,” he says settling in to his seat and picking up his pliers.“Chain mail.” Smee says flatly.“Yup."
Series: Nurseyweek2021 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151096
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	(Chain) Mail Call

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 5 of Nurseyweek2021: Hockey & Hobbies.
> 
> find me on tumblr @cricketnationrise

_X_

“Uhhh, Nurse? What’s that you’ve got there?”

He knew the question would be coming. It’s the first road trip of his new team on the way to play the Schooners. And it’s not like he has a normal, easily accessible hobby. Nursey was surrounded by bags of tiny metal rings and two sets of pliers. He looked over at Smee and watched his eyes get bigger as Nursey pulled out the piece he was working on. Smee is a rookie, fresh from juniors, and Nursey’s d-partner. It doesn’t seem like he’s gonna be a dick about this, so he answers.

“It’s chain mail,” he says settling in to his seat and picking up his pliers.

“Chain mail.” Smee says flatly.

“Yup. One of my old teammates back at Samwell got me into it.” Nursey starts opening links as he continues, “It’s meditative and shit, plus it gives me something to do with my hands while I listen to my audiobooks.”

“That’s … pretty cool, Nursey,” Smee says.

“Thanks, Smee,” he says. 

Not a bad reaction, on the whole. Last season he got a lot of weird looks and some not so friendly comments, so mostly kept the chain mail at home and just watched a lot of movies instead. But he hadn’t really been a good fit on his last team, either. Smee’s reaction made Nursey think that he wouldn’t be made fun of for his weird plane hobby here. Or not as meanly.

He wasn’t lying to Smee, he really does listen to audiobooks while assembling the mail, so he turns on the latest _Murderbot_ novel and gets to work. He pries open what he deems to be an appropriate number of rings to get started, and starts to attach the opened ones to closed ones. He uses up all the open links and is left holding a strip of two rings. Now comes the hard part, adding the new strip to the main piece. He’s so in the zone that he doesn’t realize at first that the plane is quiet.

Too quiet.

He only notices when there’s a pause at the end of chapter. He pauses the book, and takes his headphones off. He does a double take when he sees the entirety of his team crowding close.

“You guys okay?” Nursey asks nervously. He hasn’t had this many people crowding him since Samwell, but that was a very different vibe. Nursey realizes he’s holding his breath, worried, braced for a negative reaction from the guys he still doesn’t know very well yet.

“NURSEY OH MY GOD – “

“HOLY CRAP NURSEY – “

“Can you teach me??”

“THAT’S SO COOL!!”

“I want to do that!”

Nursey lets his breath out, relieved. His teammates all erupt with excitement and questions and the noise is so loud that he can’t actually make anything out for sure, but he is glad that no one can tell he’s blushing from all the general hubbub directed toward him. It’s nice to know his instincts in signing with this team were right. He’s gonna be okay here. 

“I can teach you guys yeah, but not more than one at a time, I only have so many pliers and rings and stuff.” He finally says when they’ve calmed down enough.

Smee immediately calls dibs and throws himself into the seat next to Nursey; the others grumble and move back to their seats, but Nursey can hear them figuring out a schedule for the next few weeks. Smiling to himself, he turns back to Smee.

“Alright you ready?”

“Yeah! Thanks for doing this Nursey.”

“Of course, dude.”

“You said your old teammate taught you?”

“Yeah, Tango. Guy’s a riot; always asking questions. But that means he has a lot of random knowledge rattling around. He noticed I was feeling pretty anxious on a roadie one day and just sat down next to me and was like, ‘Hey Nursey, you should help me with this,’ and it totally calmed me down. So now it’s my go-to activity when I’m gonna be flying, it’s not really conducive to do on a bus. No tray tables.”

“Well, thanks for passing it on, man,” Smee is definitely blushing now. “You know, I was nervous to talk to you?” 

“What? Why?” 

“Well, you’re just so cool and chill and like confident all the time and we’re both new to the team but you’ve been in the NHL longer AND you went to college and,” Smee’s hand comes up and rubs the back of his neck, “I don’t know man its just – intimidating, I guess?”

Nursey just stares at him. Smee’s intimidated by him. Somewhere Shitty and Ransom are laughing particularly hard, and they don’t know why. He makes a mental note to text the Frog Chat as soon as possible to brag about how the rookie thinks he’s intimidating and chill. _Shut up, Dex, yes, he is._ If it wasn’t totally rude, he’d be bragging in the Frog Chat about it right now, but it is - so instead he finds his extra pliers for Smee.

“Well, I definitely wasn’t intending to be intimidating – just wait till I manage to trip and spill a bowl of cereal on someone and believe me the magic will be gone,” Nursey says.

“… Right.” Smee is looking doubtful, but Nursey knows it’s only a matter of time before he takes his throne as the clumsiest guy on the team. Not eager to hurry that fact along, he dumps out some more rings and clears his throat.

“Okay. So. The first step is to use the pliers to open a bunch of the split rings. Make sure you don’t open them too far or they’ll get too weak and snap.”

“Like this?”

Nursey check Smee’s work and grins, “Yeah that’s great, Smee. Do that for another ten minutes or so and then I’ll teach you how to link them.”

“Thanks man,” Smee says.

“It is gonna get old if you keep thanking me all the time, Smee,” Nursey says. “It’s a little selfish, actually, but if you learn, you can help teach the others. And then maybe I won’t be booked every single road trip. I’ll miss my books.”

Smee frowns a little, then brightens, “What are you reading? We could listen together, maybe?”

Smee reminds him of Chowder so viscerally it’s like he got punched in the stomach. He really needs to text his friends. It’s definitely been too long.

“Sure thing, Smee. Let me go back to the beginning of the series. Don’t look like that they are really short, and I’ve been meaning to reread them anyway. The first one is called _All Systems Red_ and the series is known as _The Murderbot Diaries_ by Martha Wells.” Nursey fiddles with his phone, and while Smee asks a bunch more questions about the book and making chain mail, he’s able to sneak a text off to the Frog Chat.

 **Me:** The rookie told me he was nervous to talk to me because I’m quote:  
Cool and chill and confident and I went to college  
So take that

 **Dex 🦞:** AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA  
HAHHAHAHAHAHA  
HAHHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA  
Good one Nursey

 **Chowder 🦈🦈🦈🦈:** that is so nice, Nursey!  
If ONLY HE KNEW THE TRUTH

 **Me:** Shut up I'm very intimidating  
The both of you are so savage  
I love you guys

 **Chowder 🦈🦈🦈🦈:** 😘  
See you when you play the Sharks! Only 1 week!

 **Dex 🦞:**  
Still can’t breathe from laughing 🤣  
Love you man  
See you when you get home 🙂

_X_


End file.
